Articles About Jesus

Did Jesus take our sins on Himself?

This is Christianity’s core and most important tenet. The belief that Jesus, having died on the Cross took humanity’s sins away from them. It is curious that not a single word can be found attributed to Jesus Himself in regard to this tenet. Jesus Christ Himself never said that His death would take the sins of mankind away! There is not a single passage in the Bible where it would be found that Jesus Himself said this. Where then did this idea come from?

It developed with the early and later fathers of the Church who in courting human frailties wanted to increase the numbers of adherents of the Church. They wanted to make Christianity attractive and the historical context in which Christianity found itself must not be ignored. It was a battle for survival and if something could be found that would make this nascent religion attract more followers, then why not use it?

In any case this tenet detracts from the more urgent notion that it is the Message of Jesus in His Word which can set mankind free. It is the adherence to this Word which He brought to mankind that will guarantee salvation. Jesus spent virtually all His time on earth teaching mankind about the Laws of God and their meaning, often explaining these Laws in picture-form so that they would be accesible to the human spirit in an easily understandable way. The fact that He spent so much time on the teaching of the Word should testify to the fact that this was the most important thing for us human beings.

Each one was meant to think about the truth contained in His Word and as such accept this Word and live his life accordingly. It is only this strict adherence that will secure salvation. Having brought a new teaching which opposed what hitherto existed it was natural that He would be antagonized by those who were in authority because with His Word He undermined them and their false ways of interpreting God.

The opposition was natural and the same would happen today with slanders, lies and intimidation. This opposition to Him in the end led to His earthly destruction in the hands of the authorities at that time because He was a troublesome admonisher Who spoke the Truth. They could not bear Him so they plotted to do away with Him. So Jesus died from the consequences of mankind’s envy, fear, conceit and arrogance.

When the darkness played its last trump card by asking Jesus to deny His Origin or face death, Jesus maintained His Word to the very last that He was the Son of God. So He chose death for the preservation of His very important Word so that we might continue to have access to this very important life-saving Word.

He could have chosen to flee but if He had done that doubt would inevitably have assailed His teaching and nothing would have been left of the Word of Jesus and He would not have fulfilled His Mission which was to bring the Word of God to mankind so that we might cling to It and change ourselves and attain to salvation.

The importance of the preservation of His teaching is borne out by the fact that He would rather die than to deny His Word. He would rather let Himself be killed as a martyr for the preservation of His Word so that we might continue to have this Word. This Word then was the key to everything that Jesus did.

The darkness was hoping that Jesus would deny His Word and His Origin whereby it would have been easy for his adversaries to say that Jesus was not reliable and was not a man of His Word. This would have destroyed Jesus’ Mission because nobody would ever believe in Him again if He had fled or denied His Word.

This was what the darkness was hoping that Jesus would do. Facing the most agonizing physical death on the Cross, the darkness thought that the fear of this kind of death would have been enough to make Jesus change His mind. The hopes of the darkness were, however, completely dashed when this did not happen.

Jesus stood firm in His assertion that He was the Son of God and as such the darkness was completely vanquished. The last trump card did not work. Jesus’ Word stood! The faith of His believers was completely fortified by His choice and our faith in the Word of Jesus should also be fortified by the fact that Jesus fought for us and died for us so that His Word might be maintained for all eternity for posterity.

Jesus remained free from the burden of mankind’s sins because to carry the sin of anyone on His Shoulders was not His Mission. He fulfilled His Mission which laid solely in bringing the Word of His Father to mankind.

It is completely contrary to any natural sense of Justice that Jesus, Who came from Divinity would carry anyone’s sins on His Shoulders. He did not have to do that. His Word was enough and mankind should make the necessary effort to know this Word which was brought and maintained at such a great sacrifice and adjust ourselves to It.

If such a thing is not possible among mankind who would not allow someone else to take upon himself another man’s sins or guilt, then how much more despicable such an idea must be in the Eyes of God Who is the Source of all Justice.

So Jesus did not take our sins on His Shoulders but gave the Word to mankind so that we might know of It and adjust ourselves and change ourselves for the better and ascend to the Kingdom of the Spirit as a result.

There is nothing great in the hitherto existing explanations. It diminishes the Work of the Redeemer and turns God into an unjust and arbitrarily acting God which are qualities He never possesses. Much greater is the natural explanation which showed the struggle of Jesus and the fight He fought on our behalf against the clutches of the darkness.

It was a great fight and struggle to have come all the way to this place and take up the battle with the darkness and leave behind His Word through the pain of physical death. No greater sacrifice has ever been made. It is a sacrifice that only God can make through His inviolable Justice and Love. We should bow down and thank Him for the abundance of His mercies.